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Transforming Assessment Practice(s) in ELT
English UK
Academic conference January 2019
Vic Richardson
Content
1. Introduction / Overview of the topic
2. Ipsative assessment & feedback
– a tool for continuous enrolment
3. Effective feedback
4. Review & suggested next steps
The word ‘assess’ comes from the Latin verb ‘assidere’ meaning ‘to sit with’.
Assessment
In assessment one is supposed to sit with the learner. This implies it is something we do ‘with’ and ‘for’ students and not ‘to’ students. (Green, 1999).
Assessment
Re-thinking assessment
• Educative assessment (Wiggins, 1998)
• Teacher-based and school-based assessment (Davidson & Leung, 2009)
• Learning-oriented assessment (Carless, 2007; Jones & Saville, 2013)
• Dynamic assessment (Anton 2012)
• Sustainable assessment (Boud & Falchikov 2006)
• Mastery learning (Whiting et al 1995)
Assessment literacy
Now, after a lengthy career, I am convinced that the
single most cost-effective way to improve our nation's
schools is to increase educators' assessment literacy.
(W. James Popham, 2018)
Assessment literacy
More than marking
It is assessment and feedback know-how about • test and assignment design and /or • marking tests and assignments fairly and accurately • giving feedback and ensuring students make good use
of that feedback • interpreting the assessment and feedback to affect
what is taught and how (Hughes 2016)
ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING
The dominant paradigm Summative – an end point
Tests, quizzes, reviews to measure fairly, accurately & demonstrate learning
ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING
The (not so) new paradigm Formative – a starting point
Test quizzes reviews, success criteria to determine what next to improve learning
ASSESSMENT AS LEARNING
A synthesis: summative & formative Techniques & tools used to influence next steps become part of student learning process
The horizontal dimension depicts the qualitative differences addressing the question: how can each learner be helped to progress? The vertical, quantitative, dimension is the primary domain of assessment experts, if only because the construction and interpretation of a scale of language proficiency is a highly technical issue.
(Jones & Saville, 2016)
Experience is a bald man’s comb
Let technology do what technology is good at, and let teachers do what they are good at.
(??)
Ipsative assessment & feedback
Ipsative feedback compares present performance with previous performance. A personal best in athletics is ipsative. By contrast in much academic learning where assessment is made in relation to external attainment criteria or rubrics, credit is rarely given for how far the learner has advanced since the previous piece of work.
(Hughes 2001: 353)
My progress
My course
My English
My last study plan
My new study plan
My learning Journal
Personal Learning Plan – Structured Tutorials
Issues
• What makes an effective tutorial?
• What makes a good study plan?
• What is a good coach?
Effective feedback
Level 1: feedback on task / performance
Level 2: feedback on(learning) process
Level 3: feedback on self-regulation
Common Framework of Reference: I can relate a straightforward narrative reasonably fluently.
One day Jim went to see his doctor because he was too fat and
he felt bad. The Doctor said that he was very overweight
so he had to do more exercise and go on a diet. Jim decided to go
jogging, to eat healthier, to lifting weights and to go to the sauna.
Three months later Jim went to .. went to .. his weight to see
how many kilos he has .. had dropped. He was surprising because
he was more thin so he couldn’t wear his clothes again because
now it was very big for him. He decided to go to the tailor for fix
his clothes. He paid a lot for that but now he felt happier
than before
Level 1: Feedback on the task
• 90% of all feedback given • Variable impact
Negative Positive Too much feedback New information / input Incomprehensible General / generic Unactionable Mixed with praise Sandwich … the ‘yes, but …
Effective feedback
Level 1: feedback on task / performance
Level 2: feedback on(learning) process
This is a story about Jim Cook, a man who is 50 years old. One Day Jim Cook felt so bad because he was overweight so he decided to go to the doctor. The doctor said that he had 10 kilos more so he needed to make something like go jogging, eat healthy, go to the gym, go to the sauna, etc. Jim Cook decide every day go jogging, eat only salad and food, go the gym, etc. Three months later Jim went to the scales and he realised that he lost 10 kilos but now he had another problem, now his clothes was so big for him so he decided to go to the tailor to fix the clothes. The tailor fix all the clothes and after this he could use all the clothes and in the end was so happy for him.
This is a story about Jim Cook, a man who is 50 years old. One Day Jim Cook felt so bad because he was overweight so he decided to go to the doctor. The doctor said that he had 10 kilos more so he needed to make something like go jogging, eat healthy, go to the gym, go to the sauna, etc. Jim Cook decide every day go jogging, eat only salad and food, go the gym, etc. Three months later Jim went to the scales and he realised that he lost 10 kilos but now he had another problem, now his clothes was so big for him so he decided to go to the tailor to fix the clothes. The tailor fix the clothes and after this he could use all the clothes and in the end was so happy for him
One day Jim went to see his doctor because he was too fat and he felt bad. The Doctor said that he was very overweight so he had to do more exercise and go on a diet. Jim decided to go jogging, to eat healthier, to lifting weights and to go to the sauna. Three months later Jim went to went to his weight to see how many kilos he had dropped . He was surprising because he was more thin so he couldn’t wear his clothes again because now it was very big for him. He decided to go to the tailor for fix his clothes. He paid a lot for that but now he felt happier than before
Level 2: Feedback on the process
• Feedback as an end point vs. feedback as a starting point
– One-way feedback from teacher to student
– Two-way teacher and student
• The old paradigm: transmission
• The new paradigm: dialogue
• They can’t improve if they don’t know what good looks like
– Share marking criteria aka success criteria with them or better co-construct it with them
Effective feedback
Level 1: feedback on task / performance
Level 2: feedback on(learning) process
Level 3: feedback on self-regulation
Level 3: Feedback on self-regulation
A self-regulating student • is a pro-active recipient (Winstone, 2018) • an intentional learner who actively looks for advice &
direction to improve their learning (Black, 2006) • has a feel for the learning game. (Bourdieu, 1990)
1. Teach use of past tenses and vocabulary related to the picture
story used to provide context for the grammar
2. Check students’ understanding of the tenses and vocabulary
using CCQs, student volunteers answer the questions
3. Set task: tell/write the story using the pictures as a guide
4. Monitor and help individual students
5. Collect audio recording / written story, mark and grade it
6. Give it back to students with scores, discuss strengths
and weaknesses with class
Adapted from Petty
Teaching methodology - Common practice?
1. Ask class to tell the story, list outline on board 2. Have students evaluate exemplars produced by last term’s
students – some good, poor and middling. Agree criteria for a good story with class
3. Set task tell/write the story using the pictures as a guide 4. Monitor and refer students to criteria and use criteria to help
individuals 5. Students to check their finished story against criteria 6. Teacher review how to give peer advice ‘what could be said? vs.
what should be said?’ and find the positive and then have stories peer reviewed in groups.
7. Peers write feedback comments and return it to its owner, who reflects on how well they had done, what they needed to do next.
Un-common practice?
Assessment OF learning
• Input driven – the teacher knows what the outcome is and what success looks like
• Language: input > practice > assessment > move on … or Task: preparation > performance > evaluation > move on
• Linear
• Fosters teacher dependency
• Learning is about ability and ‘cleverness’. – Good (language) learners are
born, Those that can, do. Those …
Assessment FOR learning
• Outcome driven - students are clear what the outcome is and what success looks like
• Competency: what can I already do > what do I want to be able to do? > How do I narrow the gap? > what are my next steps?
• Virtuous circle
• Fosters self-regulation
• Learning is about effort and ‘willingness’ not ability & cleverness. – Weaker students benefit most
from Afl [email protected]
Review • Assessment literacy, assessment of, ~ for & ~as learning,
– Teaching & learning, assessmrnt and feedback
• As regards transforming your practice • Ipsative assessment & feedback
• A tool for continuous enrolment – tracking student progress individually, and comparing progress with previous attempts
• Individualisation, a course within a course • Competences & learning plans
• Moving from assessment of to assessment for learning and the paradigm shift to assessment as learning
• New paradigm for feedback: transmission giving way to dialogic feedback – Different levels of feedback: task, process, self-regulation
• Transforming role of student to pro-active recipient – Methodology straightforward but challenges re intentional learners
• Moving from linear input driven vs. circular outcome driven methodology
Next steps?
Starting out
Review your notes:
• Where are you now?
• Where would you like to be?
• How do you narrow the gap?
– Action-oriented & achievable
– KIS(S)
How do we get more insight?
• Reading list
• Experiment in class
• Enlist the teaching team. Make it part of CPD: self-monitoring, peer observation, learning walks (see grid)
• Attend (English UK) workshops, join communities of practice
Black & Wiliam 1998
Hattie & Timperley 2007
Assessment Reform Group 2002
Teaching & learning Research
Programme
2007
Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick
2006
Tool kits
Evans 2016, 2018
Winstone & Nash 2016
Visible Learning Feedback Hattie & Clarke Routledge 2019
Learning oriented Assessment Jones & Saville CUP 2016
Teaching Today – A Practical Guide Petty Nelson Thorne 2014
